Some interesting people whom I met last week

Idayat Ali
It was bitterly cold, on the 19th January morning at Bikaner, Rajasthan. At around 9AM I went out to K.E.M Road, the market place of the old city, to see the market place come to life as the sun rises over our heads. I was walking around taking photos when Idayat Ali came dancing towards me and appeared on the frame. After the initial introductions, he asked me to accompany him and he would show me an old haveli (old private mansion), which normal tourists won't get to see as it was hidden in the bylanes of the old city. After the tour of the haveli, Idayat asked me the kind of cellphone I was carrying. After hearing that I was carrying a cheap and very basic cellphone, he wanted the cellphone as a tip, I guess, he felt that a cheaper phone would be easier for someone to give away. I had to tell him that I would need the phone to get around in the unknown city. Understanding that he would not get my phone he asked for Rs100. That was quite steep for a tip. I had to ask him the reason for which he was asking for the money. He said he would buy a SIM card. Well, he didn't have a cell phone, what was he going to do with the SIM. I was surprised to hear his reply. "Abhi SIM le leta hoon, baad mein phone aur koi tourist deke jayega" ("I will buy the SIM now and I will get the phone later from some other tourist") . He sounded very confident. I guess that his goal for the day was to have a cellphone in his pocket by the time he went home in the evening.
Considering his smartness, I am sure that he had accomplished getting a cellphone from a more gullible tourist.














Devinder (the little boy in the blue jacket)
It was the second day of the camel festival. That day, the festival was happening on the dunes about 50km away from Bikaner , near a village called Ladera, on the way towards Amritsar. I was watching a wrestling competition on the desert sand by the villagers, when I felt a tug on my shirt. I looked down and Devinder said "Angrej, mera photo lo" (Foreigner, take my photo). Taken aback, I asked him whether I looked like a foreigner. To that he pointed out my camera and said "haan, yeh jo hai" (yes, you are as you have a camera). I didn't know what to say, but asked them to pose for a photo. The kids were excited to see themselves in the small screen of the camera.
Devinder sees foreign tourists flocking to his village at least 2 days in a year during the camel festival, taking photos of anything and everything of his day to day life. To him, anyone moving around with a camera is an "Angrej". And for that matter he is not daunted by the color of the skin, this little boy is bold enough to walk up to a stranger, demanding a picture to be taken.


.....and finally Munniram Sharma

I had reached Ladera quite early in the morning, much before the start of the festivities and arrival of tourists and local spectators. I was walking around in the sand dunes, clicking photos, awed by the expanse of the desert. Desolate and lonely. The taxi was parked at a distance and there was a group of people with their camels on top of another sand dune on the horizon. While walking through the dunes I realized that objects are much farther than they appear. Slowly through the desert road from behind the dunes emerged a man with his boys and his uncle in a Camel Cart. That was Munniram. I went near, it was a nice shot of the camel and the cart under the blue sky with the backdrop of the yellow sand. The men happily posed on their cart. One of the boys offered to take a picture of me. So I got up on the cart and sat beside Munniram. In the rustic Rajasthani dialect he started to talking to me. Most of the things he said I could not grasp, and I realized that he was not quite understanding my Hindi either. He gave me a ride on his cart for about 20min while we exchanged a lot of words. He asked me to take a photo of him along with his camel, his source of livelihood. I obliged. One of his boys noted down my cell phone number. Then, to my surprise, he invited me for lunch at his home in a village which is about 15kms away. Apparently, there was jowar ke roti ( Indian bread made out of Sorghum) for lunch. From his expressions, it seemed that it might be a a delicacy within his humble means. But, I had to decline his invitation as my main purpose was to spend time at the camel festival. I said goodbye to him and was gone to spend the rest of the day amongst the crowd of people, camels and the rich colours of Rajasthan. At around 4pm my phone rang. It was Munniram, insisting me to go to his place and have lunch. I felt really bad to turn down his offer again as I had to leave Ladera, go back to Bikaner and take the bus back to Delhi. I told him that I would come to his place another day; and that was a mistake which I realized later.

Two days after I had returned to Bangalore, I was driving back home around 7pm, when my phone rang and it was Munniram on the other side. He called me to invite for dinner as they were making jowar ke roti again that night. He was sad to hear that I was not in Bikaner anymore and I had to promise him that I would visit his home the next time I would be at Bikaner. I was touched, hung up the phone and felt that the whole day at work was such a waste, whatever I had done was meaningless. It would have been fruitful if I could have gone to Munniram's for dinner. Atleast, I would have brought some smile on him.

Have we (urban and modern, which we believe us to be) ever invited a perfect stranger at our place for a meal? Very Very few of us, may be. Our minds are cluttered with the complexities of the urban life, and here is a man who is insisting a stranger to share a meal at his home with no expectation on returns.

I bow to the simplicity.